


Wedding Day

by hyacintholuscos



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: Carmilla Extended Universe, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-10
Updated: 2015-03-10
Packaged: 2018-03-17 01:45:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3510560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hyacintholuscos/pseuds/hyacintholuscos
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>To settle the debate of who cries at the wedding.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wedding Day

Laura woke up to an empty bed for the first time in six years.

For the first few seconds, when she woke up to the empty pillow next to her, she felt the same fear and pain that she had experienced for the week after Carmilla had first fought Lophiiformes. That week where she had fought to not sleep, when she had woken up to find everything too painful.

But then she saw the note in Carm’s beautiful calligraphy (when she had first shown her the beautiful hand writing, Laura had fallen even harder for this intricate, guarded, and incredibly sweet woman), the bands of iron that had fixed around her heart eased, and the fear settled back into a far corner. She hoped someday she wouldn’t always be carrying that fear, but part of her knew that it would take a lot longer than this to vanish completely.

_Laura,_

_I know you’re not superstitious, cupcake, but I am. I will see you this afternoon._

_I love you. - C_

Laura smiled, rubbing her thumb across Carmilla’s initial at the bottom of the note, and stretched holding the note above her head. Carmilla had taken to leaving notes like this whenever she was awake when Laura slept, and Laura had collected each one and saved it. Whenever she would feel doubts about how Carm felt about her (not doubts that Carmilla didn’t love her, but more about  _why_ she loved her), she would read them to herself.

She got up and placed the note in the wooden box on her dresser, and she looked into the mirror. Her hair was slightly standing up on the side she had slept on, but she was grateful to see that her skin was clear of blemishes (one of the things she had been incredibly worried about the previous day), and she grinned.

"I’m getting married today," she shared with her reflection, grabbing her brush and brushing out the sleep tangles. She felt a deep thrill in the pit of her stomach, and she grinned even wider, then whispered more softly. "I’m marrying Carmilla today. Can you believe it?"

She still couldn’t quite grasp that it was happening. The ring that she wore even when she slept still amazed her, the adorable way that Carmilla had proposed to her (after a couple failed attempts because Laura had really not expected it to ever happen), leaving the open ring box on her pillow with the note that said simply “Marry me?” for Laura to find when she woke up. Carm had been sitting on the chair in the corner of their bedroom, and when Laura had sat up, all she had been able to do was nod, because she was crying too hard to actually vocalize any of it. They had spent the entire day together just kissing and hugging and Carmilla’s consistent answer of “Yes, of course I’m sure” to Laura’s questions.

The wedding planning had been taken over by Perry, with very little input from Laura and Carmilla; they would have been okay with going to a justice of the peace with just a few friends and Laura’s dad there, but Perry wouldn’t hear any of that.

"Laura, you two are having a beautiful wedding. It doesn’t need to be big, but it is going to be beautiful. I’ll let you and Carmilla pick out what you wear, and I’ll plan everything from there. you won’t need to worry about a thing."

When Laura had brought it up with LaF, they just shrugged. “You know Perr. She is very invested in you two. And after planning  _our_ wedding, she wants to make sure that your day is as close to perfect as it can be.” Laura had chuckled, remembering the craziness that had been their wedding, but she knew that Perry and LaFontaine still had loved it all.

"I really hope Perry saved those seats for Carmilla’s family like I asked her to," she muttered to her mirror, starting to put on her make up. Almost like saying her name was all of the cue she needed, Perry breezed into the bedroom.

"Of course I saved the row. I should also let you know that no one has told Carmilla, so unless you’ve told her, it’s going to be a really good surprise." LaF trailed in behind Perry, chuckling.

"Perr, I think the only reason none of us have told Carm was because you threatened to filet us if we tried." LaF smiled at Laura and walked up to her while Perry laid out the hair styling supplies on the dresser where Laura had been standing. They grabbed her arms and rubbed them lightly. "You ready?"

Laura grinned at their reflection. “Absolutely.”

***

 _Oh God, I’m not ready,_  Laura thought in a panic, her stomach clenching painfully as she tried to isolate where this sudden anxiety had come from. She had been fine all morning as Perry had done her hair in thick curls, twining lavender and dark blue ribbons through the curls so that they fell down her back. The delicate tiara that Carmilla had come across in her things (or so she claimed), sat on her head and was heavier than it looked, the stones flashing like sparks every time Laura turned her head. LaF had gone to check on Carmilla, and had been going back and forth most of the day as Laura and Carmilla each sent them to go check on the other. (“You do know you both have cell phones, right? You don’t need a middle person. You can just text or call each other.”)

Actually, she knew exactly where the anxiety had come from. The last time LaF had come back from seeing Carmilla, they had said “I think you’ll love what she’s wearing. Your wife-to-be looks almost as beautiful as you.” It had been one of the things that she and Carm had talked about right after getting engaged. They had decided they didn’t want to know what the other woman was wearing, wanted the first time they saw each others outfits to be as Laura walked down the aisle to Carmilla.

It had been the words “wife-to-be” that had made her anxious. She had spent five years thinking of Carmilla as her girlfriend, had spent the last year thinking of her as her fiancee, but the word wife hit this deep seed of fear in Laura. What if Carmilla changed her mind?

She bent over, and was grateful for the loose fit of the dress that Danny’s girlfriend had designed as a wedding present. She was still able to move around without feeling constricted, and the simple, elegant cut was flattering to her figure. She tried to take in deep breaths, but couldn’t get more than a sporadic gasp past her lips.

"Mr. Hollis, could you come in here?" Perry’s voice wasn’t hysterical yet, but so tense and tight that Laura could imagine it getting hysterical in just a few more seconds. "I think Laura needs-"

"I’ll handle it, Lola," his voice answered in the other room, and Laura gasped in another anxiety ridden breath. She heard her bedroom door open and close, and his sure steps on the floor. Then she was wrapped in his arms and she was fighting the urge to sob into his shoulders. She took comfort in his presence, though, and was finally feeling like she was able to breathe, although it took several minutes for her breathing to not be laden with hiccuped half breaths.

"What’s wrong, kiddo?" he asked above her head. She looked up at him, but didn’t want to say the words out loud.

"How did you feel on the day you married mom?" He looked surprised at the question, but then he got this far away look in his eyes, and one half of his mouth quirked up in a smile.

"Oh God. I thought I was going to die that day from nervousness. I can remember, about an hour before the wedding, the idea popped into my head that she might just change her mind. That she might just leave me standing there at the altar, with no idea what to do. I nearly passed out four different times during that hour. The moment I saw her coming down the aisle, I felt like I needed to take a seat, I was shaking so bad from the relief that she hadn’t changed her mind, that she hadn’t realized I wasn’t good enough for her." He smiled wider. "She told me that night that her dad had needed to tell her to breathe about 30 times while she was waiting to walk into the chapel, following each one with ‘He’s waiting there for you. I know it.’"

Laura felt the anxiety fading a little. “Really?”

"Definitely. I think everyone gets that momentary panic, as irrational as it is, that the other person will change their mind right before they say their vows. I’m sure Carmilla is feeling the same anxiety right now."

Laura’s anxiety didn’t go away completely, but it eased further with this knowledge. “Thanks, Dad.”

"Any time, darling." He hugged her again and stood up. "I’ll let Lola know that she can come in and make sure everything looks perfect still. I’m going to go check on Carmilla while I’m at it. Just to be extra sure." He started towards the door.

"Dad?"

"Yes?"

"I love you."

He turned, grinned, and walked back to give her another hug. “I love you too, kiddo.”

***

"Breathe, Laura," her dad’s voice soothed in the hallway outside of the large living room where they had setup the ceremony. Perry and LaF, Danny and her girlfriend, and Kirsch with his girlfriend were all lined up, her friends giving her encouraging looks and smiles. Laura felt like she was going to be sick. She sucked in a deep breath, and let it out slowly.

"Do you want to know what Carmilla told me when I went to go check on her?" he asked her. She didn’t feel up to opening her mouth to speak, so she nodded. "Well, for starters, when I showed up, she was half a second away from going to your bedroom to make sure that you were still there. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone look so terrified as she did in that moment, because she was having that same irrational fear as you, that you had changed your mind."

Laura shot him a surprised, are-you-just-trying-to-make-me-feel-better-about-freaking-out look, but the serious expression on his face was enough to silence the second part of her look. She had really been scared that Laura, who was just  _Laura_  would have changed her mind on marrying the most beautiful woman to ever exist? Like that would ever happen.

"Then she told me about how much she loved you, how she would never hesitate to do something so long as it made you happy. That she watched you sleep sometimes and couldn’t help wanting to protect you, even though she knew you could protect yourself. And she told me that she knows, with everything in her, that she will love you and be there for you always." He squeezed Laura’s hand on his arm as Perry and LaF started the short walk into the living room. "You and she are both so lucky to have found each other, Laura. Enjoy and experience every bit of it. I have never seen someone more sincere than she was when she said she’ll always be there."

Laura felt her anxiety vanish completely at the thought. The realization, really; she had known deep down for years that Carmilla would always be there for her, but it took hearing it from her father to realize that she wasn’t wrong about that feeling. That Carm would be there for her always, regardless.

As Kirsch and his girlfriend went through the doors, Laura and her dad stepped up, and Laura had a brief look up the short aisle to Carmilla. Her breath caught as she looked at Carm, who already had tears in her eyes that she wasn’t even attempting to wipe away, but just allowed to fall and leave their silver trails down her face.

Laura had been expecting black, or possibly even grey. Maybe even some red. Those were all colors that she associated with Carmilla’s wardrobe. But the pale cream of Carmilla’s dress was breathtaking, with gold threading around the top of the bodice, the bodice that she might as well have been sewn into from the tight fit of it. The bodice was tight, but the skirt was not, falling elegantly to the floor with small pleats, giving the impression of poofy skirts without actually offering any of that extra weight or actual poof. Laura loved the elegance and the simplicity of the dress; it enhanced Carmilla’s natural beautify, and the lavender ribbons threaded through the lazy ringlets of her hair had her looking like some sort of fairy queen.

Laura didn’t remember saying their vows, didn’t remember the exact words that they used for those public words. She didn’t remember making it all the way down the aisle, or her father giving her hand to Carmilla. She remembered the warmth of Carmilla’s hand (she had been pleasantly surprised the first time she realized Carmilla’s skin was warm, one of many vampire myths that she learned later were completely false), and then, when they took just a minute for the two of them in the middle of this ceremony.

"I love you, Carmilla Karnstein. I will always love you, now, 100 years from now, 1,000 years from now. I will love you with all of me, with everything I am, everything I have been, and everything I will ever be." She felt Carmilla’s fingers squeeze hers gently, and the smile Carmilla gave her matched the joy in her tear-filled eyes.

"I cannot ever believe I found you, Laura Hollis. I found someone so beautiful, kind, smart, funny, adorable, and wonderful. A woman who I will always love, and always be here for. Thank you. Thank you for letting me love you, and for loving me in return. And thank you for creating a space for me in your heart and in your life. I can’t express what it means to me." A tear spilled down Carmilla’s cheek, and Laura reached up to wipe it away.

For that minute, they had been alone, but when she wiped the tear from Carm’s cheek, she heard a soft chorus of “Oh,” from their friends and family. They were pulled back into the ceremony, and they smiled at each other. Laura looked at the preacher. “So, am I allowed to kiss her now or what?” Soft laughter went through their friends and family, and the preacher chuckled while motioning for her to go ahead.

Like all of the kisses they had shared over the years, even the simple cheek ones, Laura was taken back to their first legitimate kiss, after the first battle with Lophiiformes. She felt that same giddy swoop, that same heat and intensity, and the joy and relief that she had felt in that first kiss. She smiled against Carmilla’s lips, wrapping her arms around her neck, feeling Carmilla pulling her close by her waist and feeling the simple rush of joy as their friends and family clapped for them.

***

"You do realize I lost money to Perry that you were going to be the one who cried during the ceremony, right?" LaF asked twenty minutes later in the backyard, where they were having the reception. Laura laughed, holding Carmilla’s arm as Carm talked to Kirsch, Danny, and their girlfriends.

"I’m sorry to hear that, LaF. Really, though, I thought I’d be the one to cry during the ceremony, too. But hey, the night is still young."

LaF grinned, and they hugged her as Perry’s voice suddenly called out from the single speaker where they were expecting to have music in a couple minutes.

"All right, everyone, lets give our newlyweds some space to breathe. It’s time they have their first dance as wife and wife." Everyone laughed, and moved away from them.

Carmilla smirked, but the genuine joy on her face changed it, and then she unlinked her arm from Laura’s hand and held out a hand, an invitation to dance that was a perfect mirror from the first time she danced with Laura. “Well?”

Laura laughed, and took the proffered hand, twining their fingers together and resting one hand on Carmilla’s shoulder. She felt Carm pull her close by her waist and she couldn’t help smiling as they danced slowly to some soft piano piece.

She remembered the first time they had danced together, that 10 second impromptu lesson on waltzing. When she had been so confused, hadn’t known how she felt about the woman who held her now, hadn’t even figured out completely if she could trust her. Those 10 seconds had been one of the brief moments of pure happiness she had felt during the time they had been roommates at first. After everything they had been through, being in Carmilla’s arms now felt like a miracle and a blessing. Laura felt her eyes fill with tears, and before Carmilla could give her a worried look she kissed her, hoping to send every bit of her love through that brief contact.

When she pulled back, Carmilla was smiling and gently brushed the tears from her cheeks. Laura shot her a grin, and then said in a tone full of teasing, “Umm, excuse me, but who the hell are you?”

Carmilla laughed, the rich sound of it warming Laura more than the brightest sunlight in the middle of summer. They both were remembering that first moment of locking eyes. “Carmilla. I’m your new wife, sweetheart.”

 _My wife._ Laura thought as they kept dancing.  _Now I like the sound of **that.**_


End file.
